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by caromontminy 1460 days ago
Great news ! It’s good to know that flu vaccination has two benefits
1 comments

Correlation is not causation. Ice cream sales don’t cause drowning.
> Correlation is not causation

No, but correlation isn't meaningless either. This study [1] appears to be as robust as one can get without doing a double-blind trial. Given the effect size, I suspect that is in the works.

[1] https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-...

>Ice cream sales don’t cause drowning.

Imagine thinking this study and those datasets are remotely the same.

Correlation is sufficient to draw additional studies to add to the discussion however.

And with a proper survey, you can actually account for a lot of these effects. (Ex: after accounting for outdoor temperatures, the Ice Cream Sales / Drowning correlation can be largely factored out).